Possum Springs Mishaps
by Allistor Miguel Richards
Summary: A collection of one shots involving the gang of Possum Springs. Some of these are challenge prompts, some are personal. Will include a variety of ships.
1. Chapter 1

**Possum Springs Mishaps**

 **This is a compilation of one shots I've written over time, some have been challenge prompts, some are personal. Before every prompt that was a challenge I'll explain the prompt. If you wish to send me challenge prompts for NitW through DM I am fine with you doing as such, just remember I reserve the right to accept or deny any prompts. I will also not write MaexBea because I dislike said ship. With all that said, I hope you all enjoy.**

 **New Beginnings.**

Challenge Prompt: Mae, Gregg, Bea, and Angus are teaching new recruits how to play their instruments.

The Valentine's Day before Gregg and Angus left us saw the Party Barn the most full it had been in probably centuries. There was only a month left of their time in Possum Springs and Gregg had decided they needed to throw an extremely impromptu band session together with 'a full crowd.' I'd expected all of our friends, my parents, and a couple of neighbors, instead what I found as I nearly broke down that damn annoying Party Barn entrance in frustration was the usual suspects for a band meeting-Germ included-and two new guests.

The guests in question were Lori Meyers, the local weird girl to many ('precious child that must be protected' to me,) and my ever so poetic neighbor Selma Ann; which, I guess in hindsight, means at least we got one of the three outcomes I'd predicted. Two of the three were standing in front of the stage section of the old store in which we usually practiced and were in deep conversation with Gregg and Angus, the two of whom were sitting idly on the stage in front of them. Bea was in her usual spot beside her laptop and didn't seem to be in the best of moods, and as much as that was normal for her I didn't want to test the waters by annoying her tonight. Instead, I opted to stand next to good old Germ and see if he knew what the hell was going on; after all, he usually knew exactly what was happening at any moment right?

"I don't have a clue what they're doing Mae, I'm just here for kicks," Germ answered my inner inquiries. I lifted a finger and started to ask how he even knew what I was going to ask, but then realized it would probably be a fruitless endeavor and shrugged. God, I wish he'd stop doing creepy things like that, no matter how cool they seem when I look back on them afterward they always end with the most awkward silences immediately after they happen.

Luckily Germ felt like breaking one of those silences today, "I saw Rabies today, I think he says hi!" OK then, not the weirdest thing he's ever went on a tangent about.

"Oh, sweet, I'll have to go see the little dude sometime," I blurted out my reply. Weird, though, I thought I'd been to the bridge to see him earlier today? Wait, why was I wondering about that, and how would Germ know that a possum was saying hi? Goddammit now things were just weird again.

"He didn't actually say hi Mae, possums don't say things, I just kinda wanted to make you feel good," now that made a lot more sense Germ. Wait, he did the thing where he knew what I was thinking again dammit. This was going to go nowhere.

"I knew that dude, but I'm still gonna go see him again," I responded, trying to save this conversation, "He's the trash king. We gotta, like, give him our praise or some shit like that."

"He is royalty," Germ replied in an oddly inquisitive tone. For a moment I thought he was actually considering going to the bridge or the sewer pipe to offer praise to his favorite possum and was worried. Thankfully, Gregg would be distracting me from those worries soon.

"Oh hey, Mae's finally here," Gregg yelled out loud, his voice booming in the empty building,"we can begin the auditions now!" Wait a second, auditions, what did he mean auditions? I thought we were gonna have one last hurrah in front of an actual audience, and who was getting replaced? Oh, wait, that last question had an easy answer.

"Auditions, huh," I pondered out loud,"so we're finally getting a real lead guitarist huh?" That was probably a bit mean spirited, but as far as jabs go it was probably the least terrible thing we'd ever said to each other; at least, for this week it was.

"Probably dude, all depends on if our prospects here impress," Gregg replied as he pointed back to Lori and Selmers, showing that he was taking my mean remark in stride like the hero he was. I looked past his shoulder at the pair of new recruits and smiled at them in greeting, they both returned the greeting, one more awkwardly than the other. Gregg motioned me towards a set of 3 chairs in front of the stage, smiling wide from ear to ear before running to them himself. I joined suit and sat in the middle most chair next to him, Bea noticed us taking our seats and sighed before following our lead and sitting closing me in between them with her place on the empty third seat. I wondered silently to myself for a second exactly where Angus would sit, it seemed odd that we'd only have three chairs I wouldn't have to wonder too long though, as I noticed Gregg jump at Angus suddenly appearing in front of us.

"I saved your seat for you my Cap'n," Gregg pointed out to Angus, earning a smile from the large bear.

"Thank you Bug, but where are you gonna sit?"

At Angus' question Gregg just smiled and pulled him in close, his eyes narrowed in a coy and possibly sultry expression,"I think your lap would be a perfectly fine seat for me." Angus could do nothing but giggle and blush at Gregg's proposal before obliging his boyfriend's chair offer. Not soon after that Gregg jumped onto Angus' leg and wrapped his arms around Angus' neck, the two of them sat for a moment nuzzling each other in silence.

I watched them happily for a moment before I felt an odd 'twitch' in my emotions, and I felt suddenly as if someone had punched me hard in the gut as a pang of loneliness set in. I felt stupid saying it, but I had started to grow really envious of the two of them over the months I'd been back from college; though, I think it was totally normal to be jealous of the two when they're constantly making it obvious how perfect they are for each other. If you'd been subjected to months of their doting, you'd probably want what they had just as bad as I did, maybe even worse.

Even worse, their lovey dovey actions drove me to thinking about all the possible prospects I had for being that unbearably adorable The list only served to remind me that I was really terrible at social interaction upon reviewing them. There was bombshell, but when I really thought about it she was more of just a one time fling. Cole was an option, but after puking on him and making him bleed he probably didn't want to hear much from me. The other options were all equally as abysmal, from the complete trash like Steve Scriggins to the 'I don't even know how they feel normally' tier of which only Germ resided.

My romantic daydreams were broken by a tap on the shoulder, a move that made me nearly jump out of my skin as I almost gave myself whiplash turning to see Gregg poking me from his place at Angus' Lap, a look of mock concern on his face. I shook my head and blinked, the sudden jump from my internal musings catching up to me as snapped back to reality as I heard him speak.

"Finally dude," he started upon seeing my head to face him,"I've been trying to get your attention over here and you just went completely off the grid. You ok dude?"

"Yeah, yeah, I was just, like, thinking about stuff," I responded, surprisingly being truthful for once.

Bea squinted her eyes at my response and interjected "that's a dangerous thing for you Mae." I narrowed my eyes at her chide and noticed a hint of a smile on her lips telling me that she meant no real harm. I stuck my tongue out at her after a moment.

"Anyway," Gregg spoke up after our silly interaction,"we didn't really get a lot of people come to audition, really it's just these two and we kinda had to do a lot just to convince them to even come."

"They got me to join after telling me singing was like poetry but with new chutzpah," Selmers pitched in from the stage, her hands in her hoodie pockets. I raised an eyebrow at the remark, shouldn't she already know that's what music's like? I mean, I wouldn't blame her if she was just using it as an excuse to avoid this whole thing, after all, it was pretty stupid. but she had to be better at making up excuses than that.

"Anyway," Gregg spoke up, "Selmers, you're here to audition for Capn's place in the band, so I'm gonna be real scrutinous and shit of you. Don't let anything make you think you're a shoe in."

"Even the fact that you told me I was a shoe in?"

"Right, even that."

At that, Gregg nodded at Bea and she pulled out an odd little remote and pointed it at the stage,-or more precisely her laptop on the stage-which caused a familiar tune to blare from the speaker Bea's laptop sat upon. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the noise, confused as all hell what was happening for a moment before finally piecing together that the audition had already started. Apparently they'd went over all of this before I got there, figures I'd be left out of the loop considering they don't even warn me about what song we'll be playing from day to day let alone this. So after piecing everything together I relaxed in my seat and listened intently.

I realized that Selmers must not have had much time to get ready either as I listened. She wasn't doing terrible, at least not for her first time singing the was off key every now and then and stumbled once or twice on a word, but with every stumble she was able to save herself and correct things without much effort. She was going to take some real training but by voice alone, she was a good fit.

Gregg seemed to agree with my silent assessment as he yelled out once she finished singing ,"AWWWOOOOOOOOO! I knew you'd do great, you were a shoe in from the start." His arms flapped up and down as he yelled in excitement, one of them almost hitting me in the face if I'd not leaned my head back enough to get out of the way.

"I wouldn't go that far Bug," Angus managed to say as he placed a paw on Gregg's shoulder to calm him down,"she's got a bit to go it seems. She can come to the next few sessions before we leave and we can teach her the ropes though, for sure." Selmers merely smiled and hopped off stage, moving to stand beside Germ as Lori made her way up to replace Selmers. I noticed Germ's eyes keep up with her in a suspicious manner. I guessed that it was just him being unused to new people getting close to him, and I was pretty sure those suspicions were confirmed by him walking away from her to stand behind me offstage.I hoped that Selmers wouldn't take it the wrong way, Germ just didn't seem used to people I think.

"Alright," Gregg spoke up, pulling me away from my thoughts again,"now it's time for Lori Meyers, here to try out for bass." Wait, what did he just say, Bass was my thing.

"Gregg, are you sure you don't mean lead. Bass is-" I started before one of his claws to my lip silenced me.

"I know it's your thing now Mae, but you're gonna, like, be the leader of all this when I'm outta here ya know. The Leader should be the lead guitarist," he answered, and I didn't know whether to feel honest or insulted, Bass was my thing, my jam, I'd never even tried to play lead before. What on earth made Gregg thing I could play lead at all? I looked to Bea for help but she just shrugged, it seemed like this was one of those tings Gregg was dead set on and there was nothing we could do to stop it…crap.

Upon seeing I could offer no contest, Gregg smiled and hopped off of Angus lap, rushing up to the stage and helping Lori get settled in. When he was finished, he hopped back down off the stage and stood beside germ, who seemed more receptive to Gregg being beside him than Selmers. I'd have to tell her sorry on his behalf for that later.

Unlike with Selmers Lori wasn't given anything to play off in the backgound, apparently they'd just shown her the music and told her to roll with it. The result was as expected: awful. She missed plenty of notes, didn't always get the rhythm right, and the worse she played the more tilted she got. I was gonna have to put some real time in with her if she wanted to take my place. Not that that was too out of the norm, she was a pretty cool kid to hang out with.

When it was over everyone kinda sat awkwardly in silence, Lori had a face full of apologies and Gregg was trying to force a smile as he thought of nice things to say. It was Germ that was only honest one among us.

"It wasn't good," Germ blabbed out, earning a scathing look from Bea and Angus and causing Gregg and I to perform that 'well he's not wrong' sort of expression. Lori just looked down and squeaked out an apology. Poor thing, we all knew it wasn't her fault Gregg was an impatient bastard when it came to music.

"Blunt truths aside," Bea spoke, coming in to save the day after her eyes did all the scolding they needed to at Germ,"you can improve. You're about as good as Mae is when she doesn't know the song, so you'll get better in time." Normally such a remark would get a contest from me, but I knew my embarrassment was for Lori's own good, and if I needed to be considered awful to make her feel good I would literally eat trash for such a purpose.

"Yeah," Gregg spoke up, his voice trying to guide the room into a more pleasant mood,"now it's time for the big surprise!" At that he jumped up excitedly, turning his head from side to side before suddenly looking confused.

"Now where'd I put it," he mused out loud. I had no idea what he was talking about but I guessed it had something to do with my sudden change in position as new band leader. I swore if he wasted any of that extra money he'd need for Bright Harbor on me then I'd beat the hell outta him. I shook my head at such an angry thought and started looking around the room for anything that he could have haphazardly hid myself, and as I did so I noticed Bea had left her place beside me. None of us noticed Lori however, who was trying to help look on the stage, and was getting precariously close to a certain drum set that had become somewhat of a memorial for us.

"Maybe you hid it behind these old drums," Lori piped up, upon hearing about the drums everyone that was still in the room perked up and moved their heads to view her. We all saw her start to reach out to move the set around, naive to anything about it.

" _DON'T TOUCH THOSE_ ,"two voices cried out in unison, The first being Gregg, who I'd figured would freak out appropriately. The other voice was unexpected, it came from behind me, its owner holding his feathered arm out towards Lori as if to stop her. I turned to see Germ with something between a disgusted and angry look on his face, which if they'd been any other emotions I'd have happily noted were the most emotion I'd seen on his face ever;instead, I was scared for Lori and I could feel my mouth opened slightly to show that fear. Germ's eyes locked on mine and for a split second I saw something, some sort of wild regret before he pulled his arm back and blinked it away, his face returning to his familiar vacant expression.

"That's-uhhh, that's an old friends Lori," Gregg spoke up, turning my attention from Germ and back to Lori, who seemed to have been so taken aback she'd had tears in her eyes, dammit Gregg and Germ why'd you guys have to do that, now I owed you an ass kicking both.

"He's kinda not with us anymore and we're real protective of it, we don't even go near it ourselves, sorry," Gregg continued, moving onto the stage to comfort her. Ok, Gregg, you were off the hook for the ass kicking, but I still owed Germ one.

"I'm sorry," I heard Germ whisper, and I realized it was directly to me, I turned quickly and saw that regret from before now completely covering his face. Goddammit now I had no asses to kick, but all this wrath in my foot to be directed, maybe I could find Steve later and kick his ass, he probably did something worth kicking him for.

Things were silent again, until we Bea came in and spoke,"dammit Gregg, remember where you put shit from now on." I turned to see her holding a bad-ass looking electric guitar. By my guess it was a Stratocaster, It's body was a smooth aged cherry burst with a nice maple fingerboard. My eyes widened at the sight of it as I realized it was for me.

"How in the hell even did you do that," was the only response I could come up with as I jumped out of my seat and ran towards Bea and the Guitar, but mostly the guitar.

Gregg chuckled,"it wasn't me completely, I had to offer Steve a few choice deals at the Snalcon for it if you catch my drift. I almost thought he wasn't gonna come through but he surprised me yesterday with it, man's an excellent thief." Great, now my wrath was assless again, and even worse I had something to thank Steve effing Scriggins for, what was this day coming to?

I took the guitar from Bea and held it in position as if to play, I glided a finger across the strings and heard it hum lightly. I was going to have so much fun with this thing. I'd still love my trusty old Bass just as much of course and would still jam out alone to it and teach Lori with it, but this. . .this was a glorious sign from some sort of deity that being lead was my new musical calling. I thanked Gregg and hugged him tight, he hugged back and patted me on the back. We exchanged the same spiel we'd gotten used to these past two months about missing each other and how life was gonna be so much different, but it was a lot happier this time than usual. Then the rest of practice began.

It was a lot different than usual, instead of jamming out to 'Weird Autumn,' or 'Die Anywhere Else,' the band was a lot more focused on teaching the new recruits. Angus and Gregg sat with Selmers teaching her the notes and tempo of the songs we sang directly, while I sat with Lori and Bea teaching Lorir the basics of bass guitar. It was surreal not to just be on stage jamming it out. Germ came and apologized to Lori about his blow up in the middle of my teaching session, and they hugged it out, which was pretty nice. After everything was said and done we were a lot more sure about Gregg and Angus' replacements than we were going into this thing.

Now, you'd think after all that we'd have some big event of a dinner or something, but somehow, not a single person outside of me didn't have plans past this band practice. So while everyone else said their goodbyes for the night and left I stayed and got ready to do the most responsible thing I've may have ever done:I stayed to clean up the Party Barn. That is, I would have stayed to clean up if I had been alone after everyone left.

Instead, as I turned my head to look over the Party Barn after having said goodbye to Gregg and Angus, who had been the last to leave, I saw Germ standing on the stage. He was looming over Casey's old drums, and after I got closer to him for a better inspection he had a very somber look on his face. When I got close enough to him I coughed to make my presence known, he just flicked his eyes up for a moment in response before turning his full attention back to the Drums.

After a while he spoke,"he's gone." He said it so matter of factly, but no matter how he tried it was obvious that he was holding back some emotion. I nodded my head in response and gulped, there was a palpable tension in the air between us and I had no idea what that meant.

"He's gone," Germ repeated, and after a cold silence set in. Then it happened, a dam of emotions broke within him. Tears started to well in his eyes and he gripped his hands tight. After another few moments he raised his head, tears now flowing freely, and looked around anxiously for something before narrowing is eyes at a shelf near the stage full of old party supplies. He stomped towards the supplies, grabbed it from one side, and violently threw it to the opposite side, toppling it over and causing a loud set of crashes to echo throughout the room. Even with the wild cacophony of party supplies crashing resounding through the room, one sound seemed to echo above all the others. Germ was sobbing loud and violently, his voice thundering through the room as he sank to the floor, clutched at his knees, and began rocking back and forth. This was something he'd been holding back for a while, at least for the few months since we'd told him the truth about Casey, and as I watched him fall to his knees my heart sank.

For a moment, we were both just. . .there, Germ's sorrows the only sounds among us. It was I who made the first move, stepping off the stage and squatting next to him, placing a paw on his shoulder At my touch he jumped toward me, wrapping his arms around me, shocking me completely. After a moment, I returned the desperate hug, holding him tight as his sobbing rang loud in my ear.

"Don't leave me," I heard Germ manage through sobs,"I can't lose two of you, I can't." I felt his grip on me tighten, as if letting up at all would cause me to float off into the aether. Everything was suddenly so crazy, it felt like the world was upside-down, so it make sense I responded how I did. Without a real thought, just on simple instinct alone, I shuffled my head to the side and planted a soft kiss on Germ's cheek. I think my intention was to calm him down, and it seemed to work as I felt his grip on me relax and heard his breath hitch. He shifted his body back and for a moment we just stared at each other, his eyes red from his outburst of crying and his cheeks were wet from tears. Then it happened, I don't know if it was passion that drove us or just the emotion of the scene, but before we could say anything my lips and his beak were connected in a soft kiss. I'd expected some voice in my head to go off at any minute about how I was making a big mistake, about how letting Germ kiss me like this or reciprocating the kiss was going to end badly. There was no voice like that though, it was just Germ and I together, arms wrapped around one another and mouths locked together in complete silence.

When he broke away from me I felt…off. It was almost like it was gone too soon, like I was given a test to full of questions to answer but not nearly enough time to fill the blanks. It didn't help that he rushed up and away, jumping onto the stage and freezing again upon seeing Casey's drums. I got up and slowly and precisely moved towards him, scared that if I moved too quick or made a sound at all he'd run away, and not just from out of this room, but out to the tracks, to the trains. When I got next to him, I noticed his eyes were wide and anxious. I couldn't help but feel I like I had a similar look on my own face.

"We have to talk about this," I spoke up, breaking what felt like a 10 minute silence. Talk was a bit of an understatement, but telling him we needed to freak out about how we just nearly made out in an abandoned building seemed like it would have been a bad idea in this situation. Meanwhile, this awkward time between us and the tension it brought wracked my mind with millions of thoughts. I kept thinking about how wildly unexpected this was, sure I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about kissing Germ, but I could never work out his feelings enough to ever expect it. Even now I couldn't read him well, did he want that kiss too, or was all of this just a spur of the moment thing and I just ruined a friendship because I had no self control. Of all the times I could use him doing 'that thing' now was one of them.

"Did-"

"I wanted that,yes, I-I've wanted to kiss you for a while," Germ finally spoke up, interrupting me as I was about to ask the very question he answered,"but I wanted it to be real, not something that came from pity. I wanted to ask you to kiss me and have it happen…naturally." I breathed a sigh of relief, that was one question down, now I only had a million more to go. He looked at me and I could tell he was disgusted in himself, and I could understand why;after all, I'd just sat here wondering whether I'd screwed up big time. I needed a way to tell him all was well, that he'd not screwed up, that this was something I was OK with…that I liked. I turned my head side to side, surveying the room for something to make him feel better. My eyes settled on Casey's drums, they'd been the catalyst to all this, maybe they could do some good tonight.

"You wanna learn how to play those," I mused out loud, turning my eyes to watch him. His face flickered with shock before realizing what I was doing, then turned back to his usual cool demeanor when he realized where this was going.

"You know how to play," he inquired back.

"I know more than you do," I retorted playfully, shooting him a light smile.

He returned the smile and replied,"It'd be…pretty neat." We sat there smiling to each other for a moment. The silent conversation between us had been understood, and we both knew what the other wanted.

"I'm not joining the band though, it's still not my kind of music…even if it would be nice to play with you."

I giggled at that remark and turned my eyes to the floor. I didn't know what to say next. We'd made our plays and now we didn't know whose court the ball was in, all we knew was that there was definitely a ball and a shot to be taken with it.

Luckily, shot first.

"You wanna, like, go to taco buck," he started, awkwardly moving his eyes and head round and shrugging nervously,"they've got this neat couple deal tonight we could take advantage of."

"Would it really be taking advantage if we went as an actual couple," I inquired playfully, smiling awkwardly at him. He pondered for a bit before smiling at me.

"I guess not."

He smiled at me and offered his hand, I took it and smiled back before kissing him on the cheek before we silently agreed to get ready to leave. After a few moments of me gathering my new guitar (which had been snuggled safely in a brand new case Gregg had gotten me,) and lots of giggling and awkward smiles, we walked out of the Party Barn together, his arm around my shoulder and mine around his hip, to a bright future.


	2. Chapter 2

**Possum Springs Mishaps #2:**

 **Lofty Dreams, Deep Disappointments.**

 **Prompt: The Band is gonna play out! Their getting ready pre-show and are extremely nervous.**

The venue was filling up, promising a packed night for all involved in the upcoming event. For the growing crowd the growing murmur of people gathering was an example of excitement and hope for what was to take place. Backstage, however, Bea and her friends were all a different kind of excitement.

Bea was so unsure about everything, they'd played small parties and things before but never an event like this. This was their first time playing at an actual venue, and even as some Youtube startup band straight out of some hick town this night would make or break their career. They all had a right to be nervous.

Bea herself was more of an internally struggling time. In her head, everything that could go wrong tonight was going wrong and she was dealing with it, but outwardly she was cold and deadpan. It was kind of her defense mechanism, acting as if your only emotions were deadpan and annoyance, and as far as defense mechanisms went there were probably worse she could have. She turned her head to the mirror she was sitting beside in the small prepping room she and her friends were currently stuck in to check her makeup for the event her eyes unwillingly crossed a basket of flowers that sat next to the mirror and nearly groaned out loud.

The flowers had come to her addressed from a "secret admirer," but she knew exactly who they'd came from. She couldn't look at them without forcing back a embarrassed groan at the thought of them, why on all days did her normally chill hipster boyfriend send pick today to be a cliched doofus. There was one good thing about them, she suddenly thought, at least it meant someone out there wouldn't turn on them if tonight went sour. At the spawn of that thought a lot of her inner turmoils suddenly quelled themselves, as no matter what future all of them would end with her just chilling out with her hipster raccoon talking about how fucked up the world is and how no one wants to change it.

She felt a small smile cross her face before putting up her deadpan wall and took note of her compatriots.

Mae was sitting across from Bea near the wall closest to the door that led out of the room, she was fidgeting with the tuners on her Bass and scrunching her face at it in frustration. Every now and then Mae'd strum the strings of her Bass and audibly groan as she realized it was out of tune. She was making it such on purpose of course, as some way to distract herself from the stress they were all under, and Bea couldn't blame her. Her friend had a habit of doing some…really stupid shit in stressful situations.

In the small time parties they'd played at before Germ would be sitting next to Mae, the two of them chatting it up and keeping Mae from going out of her mind, but for some reason Germ wasn't there. Bea guessed that he'd not received the backstage pass she'd reserved him, because there was no way he'd miss out on a chance to support the band. Bea snorted internally at the that thought, then revised it in her head to be about supporting Mae. After all, there was no reason for that guy to stick around the band this long when he didn't really like the music, and Gregg wasn't so good a friend he'd go anywhere near an event like this for.

Then again, he wasn't there so she could be wrong about that.

She turned her attention to Gregg and Angus near the adjacent wall from Mae after a few minutes of studying Mae fidget with her bass. Gregg was pacing back and forth in front of his boyfriend Angus, a nervous look on his face as he gripped the air in his fist constantly. Angus was leaning on the wall beside Gregg, tapping his foot to the beat of the songs they'd planned for their set, Bea could tell he was on 'Weird Autumn' after studying the tapping.

Bea decided Mae was the easier to watch of the three thanks to Gregg's pacing, and turned her attention more towards her for a few minutes as they all silently waited. It was nearing time for all of them to get their last bit of preparation done when there was a knock on the door, it was the same messenger who'd come before with her 'secret admirer's' gift. This time he'd sent a small bouquet of black roses that upon seeing she hoped against hope weren't for her. Surprisingly, the messenger's gift was for Mae, apparently Bea was right to assume that Germ hadn't been giving his pass and had went out last minute to get a thing of flowers to apologize to Mae for not being there. Mae told the messenger to place the flower's next to Bea's.

Bea would have to find the person responsible for those passes and give them a scolding. They had one job, how hard was that to do.

A few minutes later and it was nearly time to go out to the stage. Gregg rushed to pull his personal guitar from it's case, Mae truly tuned her bass up right, and Angus stopped tapping and sighed out loud. Bea simply looked herself in the mirror before standing up and grouping up with the others as Gregg started up a speech about how great tonight was.

When Gregg was finished, they all put their fists forward between them in one big group fist bump, finally ready to go.

The door opened to the room and they were led outside it, Bea could hear the audience screaming out the band's name: Sugar Death, Sugar Death, Sugar Death before they took their places on stage. As she stepped up to her computer set-up, ready for what was to come, Bea suddenly felt off. The lights suddenly shone bright and Mae and Gregg were turned to her, she tried to blink the lights away but it didn't seem to work. She put a paw to her head and noticed it was nothing like it should be, instead of a scaled claw there was now a paw full of orange fur

"Casey," she heard Mae and Gregg shout in unison. What? What was going on, she turned her head frantically in fear, before the room around her suddenly changed back to the dressing room from before. She stared in the mirror and saw an orange tabby, the room behind her turned dark and a pair of bright yellow eyes opened behind her.

And then…all was black.

—

Bea awoke with a start, cold sweat all over her. She breathed out to calm herself after such an odd nightmare. She looked beside her bed to check the time, it was five in the morning of November tenth. A year had passed since she and her friends had been in the mines, probably not the best day for late night Taco Buck before bed.

She sighed loudly, and got up from bed, she wasn't going back to bed. She stepped over to the desk in the corner of her room. She opened up the laptop that sat on top of it and sent the friends she had remaining in Possum Springs some messages to wake up to in case they wanted to hang out later.

After she finished she closed the laptop and looked at a picture on her desk of her old band and sighed. She shook her head and got up to grab some clothes to put on after a shower.

"Like we'd ever play out," she said almost solemnly to no one in particular, before stepping out of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Possum Springs Mishaps #3**

 **Germ Gets a Job**

 **Character prompt: Dan and Germ 'accidental'**

How the eff did the little guy do it.? What the eff was his boss thinking? Why in effing hell was he put in charge of training the little bugger. All of these thoughts and more rolled around in Dan's head the day Jeremy Warton walked into Taco Buck and accidentally got a job.

Apparently, according to his manager, the bird brain had came in with Mae Borowski earlier that day when it happened. It was Borowski herself that wanted an application, apparently she needed work to help her family pay off some stuff and also because of some weird deal she had with Santello, it really didn't matter. The point of it all was that instead of bringing one application, instead his dumb ass coworker brought out two.

Dan didn't even understand why he was with Borowski; were they dating, does Germ even date, was Mae a good kisser… OK actually scratch that last one that was weird, and besides, he had a girlfriend. None of that mattered anyway, what mattered was that the weirdo actually filled out the copied application for fun. Who does that?

"So, what are we supposed to be doing," Germ asked inquisitively, shaking Dan from his reverie. Dan just looked down for a few minutes in confusion, not sure what to say. He wasn't even, like, two months into this job, how the hell was he supposed to train this kid?

Dan finally shook his head to compose himself, then responded, ":I-uh-I guess I gotta teach you how to do all this, make tacos and shit."

"I've made tacos before, it was pretty fun," Germ replied with some small level of excitement. Dan was glad one of them could be excited, but it felt like every word said by Germ he could feel that familiar feeling of a job slipping away into the aether.

They made their way through the training and, surprisingly, Germ was pretty good at everything. He made some great tacos, he was good at working a register, he didn't even complain about holding the sign in front of the building for a few hours. All in all Germ looked like he'd be a good fit for the restaurant.

So it was that they sat together outside the shop, Dan taking his after-work-smoke and Germ just being there for…Germ Dan guessed.

"You did good today kid," Dan spoke through drags on his cigarette, "when you come back tomorrow we should have a pretty set position for you."

"Ehh, I don't think I'm gonna come back tomorrow." Wait, what? Could Germ even do that?

Germ looked at Dan whose face had suddenly twisted in surprise and chuckled,"I'd feel bad if I took the only open spot away from my girlfriend like that," Germ answered no one. Then the bird just walked away, leaving Dan with a dumb look on his face for a few moments.

Dan finally came too when an ash from his cigarette fell on his forearm. He danced back and waved his arm at the ash's light burn and cursed under his breath before sighing and chucking his cigarette to the ground. As he stomped the cigarette out a light seemed to flicker in his head and he chuckled.

At least one question about this weird day got answered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Possum Springs Mishaps #4**

 **Relaxation.**

 **Personal Prompt.**

The young gator stared anxiously out the cafe window, out towards the unlit neon sign that proudly exclaimed the city she'd escaped to for the weekend: Durkillesburg. She didn't know why she'd ran here of all places to escape after the insanity that came after her friend had dropped out of the college in this town, but she was glad whatever voice was working in the subconscious hbit of her mind brought her now that her weekend away from Possum Springs was over.

"You alright, Beatrice," a voice spoke up from the quiet revelry of the cafe around her, and she twisted her head quickly in response. The source of the voice, a young racoon with a comically large pair of circular-rimmed glasses and a black-strapped shoulder-bag hoisted over mixture of plaid and white shirts, stood smiling at her with two cups in each hand. From the aroma wafting from the cups she could tell the contents of right cup held a mixture of milks, sugars, coffee, and some sort of flavored creamer while the right was a simple dose of black coffee. She smiled upon catching the scents, he'd gotten her order right this time.

"I'm fine Cole," she responded with a smile, motioning for him to take a seat across from her. He smiled and placed the black coffee gently in front of her at their table, before obliging her silent instructions and taking a seat across from her at their table. After he sat he hoisted his shoulder bag into his lap and started rummaging through it.

"I'm sure I got yours right this time Bea," Cole started as he pulled some supplies from his bag, "you'll have to forgive my transgressions from earlier this weekend, after years of ordering my own thing and having people order similar all around me it's hard to imagine someone just taking it straight like you do."

"It's fine, I can't expect everyone to be as bitter as I am," she replied, earning a chuckle from her raccoon friend. They both took a sip of their respective drinks as Cole started to go to work on something with the supplies he'd dragged from his bag. He dragged a pen across paper and furrowed his brow constantly, grimacing at his work as she studied him with a calm curiosity. It wasn't for a few moments until he spoke again.

"So you've got it all figured out right, this whole plan?"

"Pretty much," she responded, sighing and turning her eyes out to the unlit neon yet again. She twiddled a thumb on her cup and grimaced after a moment, before deciding she'd put it off long enough and spoke her decision out loud.

"I'm enrolling in the online classes when spring comes around, with what I'm making from being the sole surviving proprietor of the Ol' Pickaxe I can pay my enrollment. It'll be tough but I'll probably survive better than Mae did here." Bea grimaced at her words, remembering the best friend she'd left at home this weekend. If Mae could see her now, drinking coffee with Cole, the things she would say. Though her finding out about a little coffee brunch would hardly be as bad as if Mae found out what the two had been up to the night before.

"That's not very high standards to put yourself at to be honest," Cole responded with a chuckle, though on catching a glare from Bea in response he adjusted,"I mean no ill will. Mae may hate me but aside from finding the last few circumstances I've seen her in extremely unlucky, I'm in her corner with whatever she chooses to do in life." He paused to grimace and speak under his breath at something he noticed on his paper before attempting to continue. Bea merely continued with her judgmental glare throughout.

"Point is though,she still didn't stay here long, mental illness or otherwise." Bea's expression remained stern on him, and after a moment of taking it in he realized he could say nothing to fix what he'd said he averted his gaze back to his work at hand. Seeing him frantically go to work she moved her gaze back to the window beside them, watching the cars go by in the busy street next to them.

"You know, after reviewing it, I think Mae leaving this place has been the best thing that could have happened to me lately," Bea spoke after a moment, catching Cole's attention as he looked up sheepishly to listen to her,"it's stupid, but everything that came from that decision has somehow helped me. Even the craziest parts when it was all over led to something good for me, and I don't know if I should hate it or revel in the fact that my friends stupid decisions are turning up in my favor." After finishing that ramble she gave Cole a side-long look to see him at full attention and sighed, moving her gaze to the table as she drank from her bitter coffee.

"I'm pretty sure you can do both," Cole said with a smile she looked him dead in the eyes in response, but his face didn't fade. He was right of course, and she of course didn't like it, but even that solace wasn't enough to make her feel any less confused about it.

"Look Bea," Cole continued, opting to use her shortened nickname for the first time the entire time they'd hung out this weekend,"when you came to me Friday telling me about cults and dead kids and your father going missing out of nowhere I thought you were going through a bad trip or something. I'm not even sure I can believe all this stuff about Hartley and some black goat eating kids, but if you're right you've been through enough hell lately to hate your life a thousand times. You're right to hate all that, but I think you should really be happy that through all of that you've survived."

She snorted in response, he wasn't the last to say that, Mae was bringing it up a lot lately, that they were all survivors. She didn't know whether to puke at the cheesy sentiment or laugh for hours. Survival to her meant getting through the whole fight, and with her missing father still bringing her no end of mystery, she was sure her fight wasn't over. They both had a point to it all though, this last month, no, this past year, had been hell. It was a miracle she'd came out as unscathed as she had. Part of her chalked it up to her ability to be apathetic during the worst situations, but there was a deeper part of her that thanked her mother silently for watching over her.

"I hate when you're right," she sighed after a moment of avoiding speaking,"both of you," he chuckled and took a sip from his drink.

"I know you do, but I will never dislike being the right one for once between the two of us." He'd earned a chuckle from her on that one, a rare thing to earn, but his company had made her feel at peace after the hell she'd been through recently, a lot more than Mae's constant odd optimism that had spawned from their survival of the mines. She needed sarcasm, she needed cold, she needed some reality after whatever fantastical bullshit they'd been through lately, and for some reason she'd thought to come to Cole for that. Maybe she'd come to him because she knew Jackie wouldn't believe her and her cousin was an asshole, maybe it was more because she needed someone she could vent to about Mae that wouldn't spew on and on about hating her, or maybe it was her mother pointing her in the right direction again; whatver it was, she was glad she'd made this trip.

"Really though," Cole spoke up again after a silence had settled between them,"what you said about Hartley's still the hardest to believe. He's the last guy I'd think to go out like that."

"You wouldn't be the first to say that," Bea responded, folding her hands together and keeping her eyes on her painted claws,"Gregg was beside himself for probably the first time in his life when he found out. If it wasn't for Angus and the rest of us being there he'd have jumped in that damn hole himself."

"Still, it's hard news to hear," was the only thing Cole could respond with.

"It's news that better remain a secret," Bea spoke, her tone shifting to a serious note as she pointed at him with a claw, "especially to my cousin, he and Casey were. . .thicker than thieves once and I know he never got over it."

"Oh it's definitely true," Cole responded coyly,"your dad wasn't the only one to notice those two sneaking around." At the mention of her dad Bea's eyes narrowed and he dropped the coy expression for a familiar sheepish one.

"Oh, yeah, that's still a touchy subject."

The silence that came after was awkward, with the two of them sipping their drinks in a tense silence as Cole returned to his work. After a moment, he sighed, organizing his stuff together and replacing it in his bag.

"We should get going, you've got to get back to Possom Springs and that's quite a drive away," he stated, as he stepped up from his seat. Bea followed suit reluctantly and walked behind him as they left the cafe. As they stepped out into the cold autumn air Cole crossed his arms and made an audible sound of frustration. Bea simply shuddered nonchalantly and chuckled at his discomfort. After a moment, they made their way down the street towards her car.

"So what are you gonna do about it, the Pickaxe I mean, now that you've pretty much guaranteed your Dad's dead," Cole inquired as they walked, and Bea suddenly cursed her decision to park so far away from the cafe. His inquisitive nature had been all fine and dandy this weekend until he brought up the pickaxe or her dad at all, both of which were things she wanted to avoid. After a week of her father being MIA she had to just live with it, her father had been a bastard child killer most likely. That meant taking complete control of the Pickaxe, which basically just meant she could tear the whole damn thing if she wanted, and that she'd one less mouth to feed in her life. At least that meant more money for her in the long run, which she realized had given her the chances she came here this weekend.

"I'm just gonna keep running it as is, maybe hire Mae or Steve to work doing…something I don't know," she finally managed out as they passed by the entrance to the college her friend had ran from earlier that month. She stopped and took a moment to look at it, she saw why Mae would be afraid of this thing, it's form bent over and pointing downward almost…judgmentally. She grimaced at it for a moment, and Cole, who had stopped alongside her, noticed and laughed.

"You know that thing's effed up beyond repair right," Bea nodded silently and he laughed harder,"no, I mean it's actually effed up." That caught her attention, and she turned her head to look at him quizzically.

"A few years though, back when that storm that flooded Possum Springs hit, this place got hit by it too," he started explaining,"it bent that statue all out of wack, and the thing's pose has never been right ever since. What was once a fine monument to empowering students to move forward to what's beyond has become some silent judge of character . .tragic really." Bea blinked silently in response, turning back to look at the statue. It was kinda poetic really, such a small change like the pose on a statue would lead to the take-down of a massive cult of evil dads. She thought back, to that year and everything she remembered happening, and after thinking hard about it she smiled and thanked Mae's Granddfather.

"You ok," Cole's voice broke her reverie, she turned to face him and smiled.

"Yeah, I was just…praying," she responded, causing him to raise an eyebrow and chuckle.

"Didn't take you for a girl of the cloth."

"I'm not, but that doesn't mean I can't thank the dead.."

He chuckled at that and they continued to her car both of them calmly letting the silence breathe between them. When they reached her car the two of them stood for a moment in awkward silence.

"Pretty awkward goodbye, huh," Cole spoke up, causing Bea to shake her head and smile.

"Yeah, you could say that"

"You should come by more often, now that Mae's gone I definitely don't have anyone I'd consider an old friend to just hang out with."

"Sounds like a plan."

"By the way," Cole chuckled as he opened Beas car door for her,"tell Mae I said hi, I don't even think she remembers we chose the same school."

"I'm not doing that, the last thing she needs to know is what happened with us this weekend," Bea retorted, getting into her car and buckling herself in,"and you didn't even remember that either jackass so don't act like it's something unique to her."

"I know, I know, she and I are both pretty shitty about each other," Cole chuckled, leaning on her open window,"but, after what we did this weekend, you really should tell her about me."

"One day, but she is definitely not in a place for that Cole." Bea responded, starting her engine and lighting a cigarette. Cole stepped away and smiling as they stood there for a few moments in silence once again.

"I guess that's true," Cole finally started, kicking the ground in a hangdog manner and chuckling, "just…tell her before she finds out some other way, I don't think I can take being puked on in another fit of her rage."

Bea chuckled again, and smiled at him,"that almost makes me want to wait longer." Cole laughed in response before the silence once again hung between them.

Suddenly, Cole leaned into her car and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a hug,"I'm gonna miss you while you're gone Beatrice."

The hug caught her by surprise, but not as much as the cheesy dialogue, and after a huff she responded,"I'll miss you too you dork."

"I'm your dork though, right?"

Bea chuckled for the third time that day, Cole was really dragging some mirth out of her, that was some feat. Usually it took some absolutely ironic political jail sentences or other similarly grand things to get her to crack this many smiles.

"I guess you are," she responded, turning her attention to her to see him smile the biggest smile at her,"be careful out here Cole."

"Shouldn't I be telling you that 'Survivor," Cole joked, she narrowed her eyes at him and he simply chuckled. She turned her attention to checking her surroundings so she could be ready to pull out.

"I'll see you again Cole," she said as she checked around her.

"I hope so,"

She smiled at the response and started to pull out, waving him off before she started to drive away, back towards Possum Springs, back towards her prison home. It wasn't always bad though, she had here to come back to now, and a dumb little hipster raccoon dork with the ugliest glasses to be here for her if she needed to come back.


End file.
